Electrolytic tank construction



Dec. 26, 1950 w. BRYTCZUK 2,535,780

ELECTROLYTIC TANK CONSTRUCTION Filed Nov. 9, 1946 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR.

Musk L.BRYTCZUK. 5Y6 (6 y e 1 ATTORNEYS.

Patented Dec. 26, 1950 Walter L. Brytczuk, Roselle. Bark, N. J assignor to The American Metal Company, Limited,,New

York; N. Y., a corporation of New York Application November 9, 1946;,SerialINo: 709,046

3 Claims. 1

This invention relates to electrolytic: tanks and particularly to the lead-lined type of tank in which electrodes. are suspended in sulfuric or like acid solutions tor electrolysis.

Such. tanks as heretofore constructed have consisted of uncovered. compartments composed of wood. lead lined and having electrodes suspended between the side walls. These tanks were not satisfactory; they were expensive to construct and required frequent repairs. Their side wallstended to buckle causing. deformation and short-circuiting of the electrodes by contactof the lead lining therewith. The walls also tended to sag allowing liquid from one tank to overflow and. short-circuit. into the adjacent tank or tanks. It has been. proposed to replace these. wooden tanks by tanks made of concrete throughout. This construction, however, although it gave the desired rigidity, eliminating the bucklin and sagging of the wooden. walls, was also expensive to build and tomaintain and required frequent repairs.

The. principal object of the present invention is to provide a tank construction which shall largely overcome the difiiculties mentioned, which. shall be relatively inexpensive and permit repairs to be made easily.

The invention. accordingly comprises an electrolytic tank construction which includes a series of two or more aligned compartments, each com partment being lined with lead. to. resist. acidand having bottom. side and end walls. Each of. the compartments has a. side wall in common. with the adjacent compartment, the side walls being formed of reinforced concrete sufliciently rigid to support the electrodes, the bottom walls being made of wooden planks spaced apart to permit seepage of any liquid. leaking therethrough, and the end walls being removable and made. of. wooden planks. In order to fasten the end walls. removable stud bolts are provided in the: ends of the side walls for attaching the wooden end walls of the compartment thereto.

In. the. accompanying drawings is shown a form of tank construction made in accordance with. the invention. representing a construction which I now prefer to employ; In these drawings- Figure 1 represents a front perspective view of a tank showing a wooden bottom and end walls for the compartments and reinforced concrete side walls Fig. 2 a. section on. the line. '4.'----Z of Fig. I, and.

Fig. 3. is an enlarged cross sectional fragment on the. line 3-3 of Fig. 1..

Referring now to these drawings, the numeral I. indicates a series of spaced brick piers serving. as. support. for the tank which bridges the piers. preferably leaving. open spaces beneath for access to the underside of the tank. Each pier has an insulating plate 2 covered with lead. sheet Z'cuponwhich the side walls 3. seated. onsills 3a are mounted. Each. compartment. of the tank as. shown has. abotto-m. wall 4,. two side walls 3 and two end walls 51 Each compartment. as shown has a side wall in. common. with the adj'acent compartment- The side walls 3 are formed. of. reinforced concrete which is. sufiiciently rigid to support the electrodes 6 which are suspended in. the. tank, as described. below, in substantially parallel re.- lation to one another and: substantially parallel tov the end walls. The side. walls are made of reinforced concrete and contain iron tie rods 1 which are arranged interiorly of. the. side walls and are disposed substantially parallel to. the top and bottom of the side walls. Each. of these rods has ends held in. box shape couplings 8 which are interiorly screw-threaded. at 9. and cooperate withscrew threads ID on the ends of the rods 1. These couplings when assembled project beyond the end of each rod I, leaving. a screw-threaded socket intowhich stud bolts H pass for a purpose discussed below. These stud bolts H. are provided with screw threads l2 cooperating with the. thread l3 of its respective coupling" for securing the stud bolts in place.

With this method of construction, each side wall 3 is removable without dismantling any other wall.

The bottom walls 4" are made of wooden planks spaced apart as shown. at M. to allow any leakage of the tank liquor from the compartment above to runtherethrough into the space between the piers l3. Each of the side walls rests on a sill 3w which is wider." than the wall. The edges l5 of? the sill projecting beyond the side wall. running the length thereof act as a support for the woodenlanks 4*. Each of the end walls 5 is removable and is made of wooden planks closely set together. These end walls when assembled against the. end faces of the side walls constitute a rectangular uncovered compartment. Each compartment is provided with a lead lining 16 covering. the en.- tire inner surface of the compartment held. in place as indicated. below- Incordcr to. secure the. walls din. place... these walls have apertures li aligned with stud bolts H and through these apertures the stud bolts project. These apertures are aligned substantially vertically and a plate la is placed thereover and provided with apertures through which the ends of the stud bolts ll pass. These ends are provided with screw-threads [9. On the ends of the stud bolts projecting through the plate is are nuts [9a which may be screwed up to make the wooden ends fast to the ends of the side walls. If it is desired to remove the end walls 5, all that is necessary is to unscrew the nuts and remove the walls, whereupon if repairs are to be made, it will usually be desirable to remove the stud bolts H which may be done by unscrewing them from the coupling 8, thus insuring that there are no rods projecting from the ends of the side walls which may be bent or otherwise injured during repair operations on the tank.

Each side wall 3 rests on its sill to but is unattached thereto. As noted above, the wooden end walls 5 are secured to the side walls by the removable stud bolts H which hold the end and side walls together tightly by means of the nuts 5 90.. If it is desired to remove any particular side wall, all that is necessary is to unscrew the nuts Mia and the bolts I! from their couplings 8, whereupon the side wall may be lifted from the tank without disturbing any of the other walls.

The sheet of lead lining It in each compartment passes over the top of each side wall .3. In the center of the top of each concrete side wall there is groove 2i! running the length of the side wall. The upper end of the sheet lead covering the side wall is bent over the edge of this groove (see Fig. 3), and the edge rests along the bottom of the groove 2i]. The opposite end of the lead sheet is bent over into a groove on the top of the opposite side wall 3. Filling the remainder of each groove 2!] is a strip of pine tar pitch 2! and a maple strip Zia to separate the edges of the lead sheet. Over this is a Wooden cap 22 which supports the conductor 23 for conveying the current to the electrodes in a wellknown manner.

The lead sheet for the end walls 5 is brazed to the sheet for the side walls in a well-known manner to make a water-tight lining for holding the electrolyte in each compartment. The upper edge of the lead sheet covering each end wall passes over the wall and the upper edge of a wooden strip 26 running along the top of the wall 5, the top of which strip is cut out to receive the ends of caps 22.

The type of construction described above has the following advantages among others:

The ide walls may be removed from the end walls and bottom without disturbing either the bottom or end walls. Side walls made of concrete are less expensive than those made of wood. lT'he lumber required for their construction has to he 6 inches to 8 inches thick. These sizes are prohibitive in cost at present and even in the normal market cost more than the equivalent amount of concrete. Also the amount of labor involved in assembling such side walls is much higher than that required tov cast a concrete one. The use of two-inch thick boards for bottoms and ends is less expensive than concrete slabs. Concrete slabs would have to be at least four inches thick for necessary strength making them more expensive than wooden ones.

In an all concrete construction, the slab used for the tank bottom will disintegrate more rapidly than the side or partition slabs if the lead lining should become out or start to leak. In order to minimize this, concrete bottoms have been made with seep holes but they are of only partial help, the acid still soaking into the concrete slab.

Wooden boards in the bottom of the tank have spaces every 8 inches to 10 inches across the full width of the tank. This permits almost complete drainage and therefore acid attack due to tank leakage is much less than incurred with concrete.

If the tank bottom should become so badly damaged that it has to be replaced, the wood is much more readily and cheaply replaced than the concrete. In order to replace the concrete slab, it is necessary to cut out the bottom part of the lead lining and often necessary to wreck the 01d bottom in order to remove it. With wooden planks, repairs can be made from the cellar replacing one or more boards without disturbing the tank lining.

With the construction made in accordance with the invention, end boards as well as partitions can be replaced more readily than with either the all wood or all concrete systems. The reinforcing rods do not project through on the ends of my concrete partition but are equipped with couplings into which stud bolts are fastened. When repairs are being made the studs are removed, whereas in the other two types of construction the projecting bolts interfere.

In addition to the above, there is no need for redressing lead linings due to wood shrinkage. Electrodes all hang at the same level, whereas with wood the top edge of the tank varies causing uneven corrosion of anodes. There is elimination of shorts between tanks such as caused by solution overflow of partitions in wooden tanks when they become sufiiciently sagged.

What I claim is:

1. An electrolytic tank construction comprising, in combination, two or more lined compartments, each compartment having bottom, side and end walls, each compartment having a side wall in common with the adjacent compartment, the side walls being formed of concrete sufiiciently rigid to support electrodes, the bottom walls being removable and made of wood laid to permit seepage therethrough, said bottom walls extending between the inner faces of 0pposite side walls and terminating thereat, the end walls being removable and made of wood, and removable stud bolts in the ends of said side walls for attaching the wooden end walls of the compartments thereto, anyone of said bottom, end and side walls being removably individually without removing said other walls.

2. An electrolytic tank construction comprising, in combination, two or more lined compartments, each compartment having bottom, side and end walls, each compartment having a removable side wall in common with the adjacent compartment, the side walls being formed of concrete with rod members therein terminating short of the ends of the side walls, said side walls being sufficiently rigid to support a line of spaced electrodes, the bottom walls being removable and made of wood laid to permit seepage therethrough, said bottom walls extending between the inner faces of opposite side walls and terminating thereat, the end walls being removable and made of wood, said rod members having blocks at the end thereof for receiving stud bolts, and removable stud bolts attached to said blocks for attaching the wooden end walls of the compartment assmao 3. An electrolytic tank construction comprising, in combination, two or more substantially 5 rectangular lead-lined compartments, each compartment having bottom, side and end walls, each compartment havinga removable side wall in common with the adjacent compartment, the

side walls being formed of concrete sumciently 10 1,740,011

rigid to support electrodes, a sill for each side wall providing shoulders flprojecting therebeyond on either side thereof and a support for each sill, rods terminating in couplings for holding removable stud bolts, said stud bolts projecting beyond the ends of the side walls, said bottom being removable and made of spaced wooden planks to permit seepage therethrough, the ends of said panks being supported by ,the shoulders of said sills. said end walls being'made of wooden planks. and devices including said stud bolts for securing the end walls to the side walls, said side walls resting on said sills and any one of said bottom, end and side walls being removable individually without disturbing said other walls.

WALTER. L. BRY'I'CZUK.

8 REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 704,750 Lesley July 1.5, 1902 918,649 Betts Apr. 210, 1909 986,835 Lewis Mar. 14, 1911 Evans Dec. 17, 1929 1,916,958 Brooks July 4, 1933 2,115,004 Bitner Apr. 26, 1938 A FOREIGN PATENTS I Number Country Date 356,241 Great Britain Sept. .2, 1931 OTHER REFERENCES "Prodorite Tanks at Trail, Canadian Chemistry and Metallurgy, July 1936, pp. 233-234. (Copy in Patent Oflice Library.)

"Tanks for Cleaning and Plating, Helmle, MetalIndustry, May 1940, pp. 263-268. (Copy in Patent Ofllce Library.) 

